Historic mill and museum on sale

Owner Chris Nunn began the collection with a wooden washing dolly

The tallest windmill in Britain is up for sale - along with its unique collection of social history.

The 60ft tall Sutton Mill, home of the Broad Museum in the heart of Norfolk's Broadland, houses a collection of artefacts from the 1800s and 1900s.

The collection, which began 44 years ago with a donated wooden washing dolly, ranges from antique bed warmers to old bank notes and a pharmacy.

Museum owner Chris Nunn, 67, said the price tag was "substantial".

Norfolk-born Mr Nunn, who has decided it is time to retire, began the collection 44 years ago and bought the mill 30 years ago, opening it as a museum one year later.

The pharmacy is from the Isle of Wight

He said he and his late wife, Marian, who died 12 years ago, felt some pieces of social history being turfed out in the post-war years should be saved.

"In the late 1950s so much was being thrown away - the big changing world after the war - and my late wife and I thought we really ought to try to save some of it. Once we started we did not stop," he said.

The wooden washing dolly which sewed the seeds of the collection was given to them by a next-door neighbour.

With decades of experience to call on, Mr Nunn said running the Grade II star-listed mill and museum would take a lot of dedication from a new owner.